Big push for digitisation, less-cash society a key theme of Budget

Modi govt's BHIM App found prominent mention in FM Arun Jaitley's Budget speech

Just like demonetisation, digitisation dominated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s 2017-18 Budget speech.

Aware that the government's push for a less-cash society faces challenges on the ground due to the lack of enabling infrastructure to allow digital payments, the finance minister made several proposals in his Budget speech. The key proposals were the promotion of the Bhim (Bharat Interface for Money) App by offering incentives to both users and merchants, reducing duties on components to make payment devices locally in India, and looking at mandating the use of digital payments in petrol pumps, universities and municipalities.

The push for ‘going digital’,